President Obama spoke to Barnard College's graduating class this week. Here, a round up of wit and wisdom from commencement speeches by Tina Fey, Meryl Streep, Stephen Colbert, Dr. Seuss, and others

In his commencement address at Barnard this week, President Obama gave the senior class a message reminiscent of his 2008 campaign slogan: Yes you can. "The very fact that you are graduating, let alone that more women now graduate from college than men, is only possible because earlier generations of women—your mothers, your grandmothers, your aunts—shattered the myth that you couldn't or shouldn't be where you are," he noted, setting up a parable. "I think of a friend of mine who's the daughter of immigrants. When she was in high school, her guidance counselor told her, 'You know what, you're just not college material. You should think about becoming a secretary.' Well, she was stubborn, so she went to college anyway. She got her master's. She ran for local office, won. She ran for state office, she won. She ran for Congress, she won. And lo and behold, Hilda Solis did end up becoming a secretary—she is America's Secretary of Labor."

"Lend Me Your Beers!"

"Lend Me Your Beers!"

"The definition of success changes."

In 2006, Ellen DeGeneres brought some much-needed levity to Tulane's post-Katrina graduation ceremony by making a surprise appearance in a white terry-cloth bathrobe, because, she deadpanned, "They told me everyone would be wearing robes." Three years later, the New Orleans native was invited back to be the school's commencement speaker and gave (mostly) serious advice about the meaning of success. "For many of you today, success is being able to hold down 20 shots of tequila," DeGeneres said in her speech. "For me, the most important thing in your life is to live your life with integrity, and not to give in to peer pressure. To try to be something that you're not. To live your life as an honest and compassionate person. To contribute in some way. So to conclude my conclusion: Follow your passion, stay true to yourself. Never follow anyone else's path, unless you're in the woods and you're lost and you see a path, and by all means you should follow that."